


Brothers

by BelladonaBaggins



Category: Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan
Genre: Brotherly Love, Fluff, Found Family, Gilan being a soft big brother, Halt being a dadTM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelladonaBaggins/pseuds/BelladonaBaggins
Summary: A short, fluffy one-shot of Gilan being a big brother to Will. These two are BROTHERS and you can fight me if you don’t agree. Might be added onto, just because of reasons.
Relationships: Gilan & Halt O'Carrick, Gilan & Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	Brothers

“You two are idiots.”

Gilan grinned sheepishly up at his former master, shivering involuntarily while doing so. He would have been standing up to face Halt if he wasn’t so tired. Maybe staying up all night and talking with or pranking the apprentices during the whole Gathering, wasn’t such a good idea. The apprentices saw Gilan as one of them because of his childishness, or maybe a more glorified apprentice or a less glorified Ranger. Especially considering that his best friend was a third-year, the younger ones seemed to have been attached to him.

Somehow Gilan managed to survive on approximately five hours of sleep during the entire Gathering, Will maybe on a little more than that, but apparently staying awake for hours on end, laughing and pranking and talking all night in the deeps of winter, caused one to return home with a fever. Or two: Gilan and Will.

Halt had left far longer than Gilan and Will did, as the younger two spent hours in their goodbyes and cleaning up their pranks from the Gathering grounds. After Gilan put their horses away and dragged Will inside by his sleeve, he had slumped down on the couch in front of the fireplace, and Will was next to him, hugging himself and shivering. He had started not feeling good on the way home—a feel of his forehead showed Gilan that he had a fever, and Gilan felt one coming on too.

Frown betraying any soft emotion, Halt leaned down to pull Gilan’s blanket tighter around his torso, then felt at his head—again—and frowned deeper. “That won’t be going away anytime soon,” he said while doing the same to Will, a bit more gently, “especially if it just started. I’ll make you some tea. You are to drink it all, then go straight to bed.”

There were plenty of things to whine about—why tea? And: It’s not even sundown yet, why do we have to go to bed?—but Gilan was too exhausted to say anything. So, with a quiet sigh, he burrowed down deeper into his blankets. Beside him, Will shivered violently despite having two blankets wrapped around him and being closest to the fire. Gilan knew a little bit of Skandia, which was more than he ever wanted to know. The starvation alone was … it was terrible, what they did to the boy. And the cold ….

With a brotherly grin, Gilan threw an arm around Will and held him close. His shivering lessened, fortunately, and he sighed contentedly against Gilan’s chest.

“Thanks, Gil,” he muttered, voice hoarse.

“Sure thing.” To Gilan, Will was more than a young friend—he was a younger brother he never had.

They sat like that for a while, until Gilan got sweaty all of a sudden, when Halt returned with two mugs of steaming tea and a softer expression. Gilan gently roused Will—the boy seemed ready to fall asleep—and helped him sit up so he could take his mug. The boy held it up between his legs pulled up to his chest, still shaking as he took small sips every now and then. Halt sat in his usual chair, staring into the fire and nursing a mug of coffee, much to Gilan’s jealousy.

Halt just wants us to go to sleep so he won’t have to deal with two sick apprentices, Gilan thought ruefully. Both he and Halt considered him as Halt’s “apprentice” still, after months of reminding him that he was not, until Gilan finally gave up after Halt said “Hmm. That must have slipped my mind” for the thousandth time.

Will’s weight increased on his side, and he realized the tea was really doing its job. Not that Gilan felt … sleepy … of course … but …. Of course Halt would put a hefty sleeping drought in it. Or maybe it was some herb ….

Yawning, Gilan took his and Will’s half-empty cups and set them on the side table, then promptly threw his socked feet on the side of Halt’s chair. Gilan almost missed Halt’s incredulous face when he closed his eyes and made a small grin, as if asleep. After a while, Halt patted Gilan’s leg in a fatherly gesture, and kept it there. Still closing his eyes, Gilan pulled Will closer to him, resting his chin atop the boy’s unruly brown curls.

Having a little brother might be nice ….

An hour’s passing, considering how the sun’s light cast hard-angled shadows through the windows, felt more like a few minutes when Gilan was roused by Halt’s voice speaking soft Hibernian words to Will.

“Halt … what …?” Gilan said groggily, pulling one arm out of the blankets to reach Halt. Immediately he regretted that, as a surge of cold air froze his arm and sent a spike of shivering down his back.

Covering his arm with the blanket again, Halt shushed him and went back to fussing over Will, adjusting the blankets over him. He then picked the boy up in his arms, and Gilan shuddered at the sudden coldness.

After a moment to recalibrate himself into the real world, Gilan stood up achingly and followed Halt to his room. Leaning on the doorway, he watched as Halt lay the boy in his bed and pulled the blankets up to his chin. He quelled the boy’s stirring with a pat on the head and a few comforting words.

“Is he alright?” Gilan asked, not really expecting a full answer. Will just had secrets that he kept to himself—or told Halt; things Gilan wouldn’t know the half of—but he wished he knew more about what was going on inside Will’s head. The apprentice definitely suffered through some fake smiles during the Gathering.

Halt glanced at him. “I hope,” he answered. “He’s been getting sick on and off after Skandia. I fear this is one of the worse ones. His fever’s already climbed so high ….” He sighed loudly, then continued in a quieter voice, “The nightmares are the worse. He doesn’t talk about them—he won’t. They terrify him, Gilan.”

Gilan nodded in understanding and sympathy. “He shouldn’t be alone.”

Halt shook his head, ruffled the boy’s hair one more time, then came up to Gilan. “You wouldn’t mind …?”

Gilan smiled, hoping he didn’t look too sick to make it look like a weak smile. “I’ll stay with him, Halt. He’s my little brother, after all.” He directed his grin to Will. “I’m sure he’s sick of you watching over him. I’ll take care of him.”

“Thank you, Gil.” He patted Gilan on the shoulder before helping him slide into bed next to Will. Good thing Halt’s bed was big, or Gilan would have his legs sticking out over the end and half his body draped over one side.

When Gilan was settled, Halt checked on them one more time, a hand on Will’s head, then Gilan’s, before leaving and coming back with a basin of water and a washcloth, which he dampened and placed on Will’s already-sweating head. Darn, the boy could catch a sickness quicker than you could blink. Gilan didn’t feel much warmer than he did before.

As Halt adjusted Gilan’s blankets one more time, Gilan smiled up at his master and whispered a “Thank you,” to which Halt responded with a nod and half a grin. He could not call Halt his father, not when he already had a father, but … he was something close to it. He was like Will’s father, Gilan knew for sure.

“If you need me,” the man said while walking out, “just holler. And keep Will safe.”

“Always,” Gilan said, sliding an arm around Will so the boy’s head was on his chest. “Goodnight, Halt.”

“Goodnight, Gil.”

And he left, leaving the door only a crack opened, enough for a little light from the dying fireplace to seep in—and enough to hear Halt muttering under his breath to himself. He really wasn’t good at doing that quietly. Gilan caught something along the lines of: “Guess I’ll sleep in Will’s bed …. Hope I don’t break my back if I fall off ….” Then: “What have I gotten myself into? Two sick apprentices.”

Gilan sensed Halt shaking his head and made a short, quiet laugh. Pulling his little brother closer, he found Will’s hand under the blankets and squeezed it gently, then fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling guilty for getting your hopes up of writing a whumpy, angsty short story for Will, from two months ago, so I wrote this, you’re welcome! Pls forgive me if it’s written like trash because I had an idea and I just wrote it, not really sure where it would go. I might add onto this, mostly because I like writing sick Will and we need more Gilan-Will-brother content on here. I probably won’t update it til next month, though, as I’m pretty busy irl. But, yeah. I hope y’all enjoyed this! As always, drown me in your comments and kudos—it makes me sleep better at night, and it keeps the voices away. God bless you all, my wonderful children!
> 
> -Belladona Baggins


End file.
